The potential killer of The Evening Herald
Monday, July 31st, 2006The Guardian reports on an interesting development in the freesheet market in London as News International/NewsCorp prepares to launch ‘the London Paper’, a free daily paper with a slight edge; it’s an afternoon/evening publication.
NewsCorp has been slow on the scene in the Freesheet market with Associated Newspapers taking the majority of the market so far; it currently owns the UK Metro editions and also publishes Standard Lite; a freesheet version of its Evening Standard publication, a tactic a kin to the publication of Herald AM in Ireland.
Interestingly the Standard Lite is only distributed until 2:30 PM, this is obviously so it does not hinder sales of the Evening Standard. The upcoming London Paper title will be distributed from 4:30 to 7:30 PM, putting itself head-to-head with the Associated Newspapers paid-for publication and right in line for the home-time rush hour market. According to the Guardian article there is a tender process ongoing amonst the London public transport agencies for an afternoon publication, something that News International may bypass. Theoretically this means that there could be two Evening newspapers on the scene in London by the end of the year; The London Paper which will be distributed outside tube stations and another that will be distributed within.
It is possible but unlikely that Associated Newspapers will bid for the London Underground afternoon/evening paper tender as it would only lead to a further erosion of its Evening Standard readership.
Putting all of this in an Irish context this could be the catalyst to a similar incident in the Dublin market. Currently Metro Ireland and Herald AM both distribute early in the morning to gain the readership of the commuter audience; by home-time rush hour most copies of both papers are only available on empty bus seats and Independent News & Media has an invested interest in not allowing its freesheet publication to overlap onto its paid-for paper’s time-zone.
Should News International’s push prove a success we may see an afternoon/evening paper on the market very quickly, especially if Herald AM and/or Metro start to prove their worth in the near future. Potential suitors for such a publication could include any media group or company; Metro (owned by Associated Newspapers and The Irish Times Ltd.) is probably in the best position as it could simply update its morning paper with an evening edition. TCH could also make a move onto the Dublin freesheet market; while it is generally a Cork-centric media group any freesheet offering there could hinder its existing publications; The Evening Echo is owned by TCH and The Examiner takes 1/4 of the Munster market; one of the biggest players in the region and in Cork itself. Dublin on the other hand is a less successful patch for the group with The Examiner taking less than 1% in the last JNRS figures; while that is generally considered bad news for TCH it can also be looked at as a huge market left to win over. Tying a free evening paper to a paid-for morning publication could even help The Examiner in the capital (even though it is a backwards marketing tactic compared to Herald AM and the Evening Herald)
Outside of Irish interests The Guardian Group could even mount a challenge; it’s interest in the sale of Myhome.ie shows that they consider Ireland to be a fertile market, although that group has been more keen on shaping its digital publications rather than bogging itself down more and more with an old-fashioned print model. Last but not least there is always News International; they could do the same as Associated and transport their successful model from the UK to Ireland to create “The Dublin Paper” down the line.
Regardless of what company takes the plunge (and if one does it’s unlikely to be IN&M) there is a potentially great opportunity for the expansion of the freesheet market in Dublin and like Herald AM and Metro have dinted tabloid dailies any afternoon/evening freebie would certainly pose a huge threat to its Evening rival.
The Evening Herald has had plenty of attacks in recent times with The (Irish) Daily Mail and morning freesheets; even The Irish Independent is encroaching on the market of the age-old daily, could this be the final nail in it’s coffin?
Who knows, maybe even The Irish Press plc. will come back from obscurity to get revenge on its once bitter rival.
(just to note News International currently has a hold of thelondonpaper.co.uk in preperation for its impending launch; no site is currently live there however)
Blogs elsewhere
July 31st, 2006 at 8:44 pm
The evening market is the hardest one of all to crack. Distribution is difficult, the market is falling, and there is no definite revenue stream. Look at the corpses of papers that have tried to follow in the wake of the Evening Press (which in its heyday was selling two and a half times the current Herald).
The rebirth of the Evening Press is extremely unlikely, as Tony O’Reilly has a hold on the titles. He lent money to the Irish Press in its dying days(the unpaid loan was secured on the three titles titles, ensuring that they could never be sold). It was his one of his cleverest strokes ever.
July 31st, 2006 at 9:17 pm
True the Evening market is a tough one to crack, but when there’s no cover price and you take the paper to the (commuting) consumer rather than get them to come to you it’s a different story.
The Irish Press reference was a little bit tongue in cheek I’ll admit, although I was under the impression that the Irish Press Plc still has a lot of money in its coffers that it hasn’t touched since it folded up (I think it currently has shares in some regional paper too). Certainly didn’t know about the O’Reilly loan though… not sure if I totally understand the deal you say was struck but is there room in it for The Irish Press Plc to launch a freesheet evening paper that is called something other than The Irish/Evening Press? I’m sure O’Reilly would come looking for his money though.
July 31st, 2006 at 10:44 pm
Just to follow up on the current state of The Irish Press Plc.; very little news in recent years; they have a 30% stake in Tipp FM and own the Thoms Directory (which I’d never heard of until recently, but is the source of information for banks, credit agencies etc.) and in 2002 the SBP reported this:
The Irish Press has now returned to the headlines. Irish Press plc has won €6.35 million in damages against matchmaker Warburg Pincus, the US firm that put the doomed 50-50 partnership together with American publisher Ralph Ingersoll. That award is presumably to be added to the offshore millions generated by the talents of Irish Press employees.
The article (here) also alludes to the Tony O’Reilly factor, simply saying he wasn’t allowed to buy further into the titles due to competitive fears.. it doesn’t say what he had already bought but the word ‘titles’ rather than ‘group’ suggests his loan had little to do with plc. than paper.
I must try and find out what financial state the group is in now (although I’m sure they’re not planning a re-entry to the newspaper market, though it’s always a possibility!)
August 10th, 2006 at 11:17 pm
[…] Following on from my comments about News International’s upcoming London evening freesheet that, if applied to the Dublin market would certainly prove a challenge to the dominance of the Evening Herald I decided to snoop around the Irish Patents Office to see if NI had made any recent and interesting filings. […]